heat helps you win at life
Always losing things? Struggle to keep your mind on track? Often butting in? heat discovers why this mental health condition is no longer a dirty word
Travel, food, fitness… Because your Instagram feed won’t fill itself
What do Real Housewives’ Tanya Bardsley, model Erin O’Connor and singer Solange Knowles all have in common? They’ve all been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as adults. Symptoms include restlessness, trouble concentrating and impulsive behaviour.
In fact, many celebs have gone public with their ADHD diagnosis – step forward Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, Simone Biles, Mel B and Emma Watson. So, is this just the latest “thing” – adiagnosis to explain poor behaviour, which people, especially celebrities, lock on to? Not at all, says psychotherapist and ADHD specialist Dr Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, author of Adult ADD: A Guide For The Newly Diagnosed (New Harbinger Publications £10.79). “ADHD is a genetic and biological disorder,” she says. “Someone doesn’t choose to be ADHD or ‘catch’ it through improper parenting— people are born with. There is a 75 per cent chance that you inherited ADHD genes from at least one of your parents.”
According to Dr Sarkis, it’s not really a surprise that so many celebs have it. “People with ADHD tend to be more creative and think outside the box,” she comments. “The positive traits associated with the condition also include having a good sense of humour and a strong sense of justice.”
ADHD is a lot more common than you’d think. The ADHD Foundation estimate that one on 20 adults in the UK have the condition. However, only 120,000 are formally diagnosed.
BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Three times as many men get diagnosed as women, but many experts believe this is simply down to the fact that symptoms in women are not picked up early on.
But thanks to greater awareness, this is changing. Many have been alerted to ADHD symptoms via TikTok – videos with the hashtag #ADHD on TikTok having had 14.8billion views and Clinical Partners, one of the UK’s leading mental healthcare providers, reported a huge surge in self-assessment by women last year. The reason men may be more likely to be diagnosed in their youth is because their symptoms cause more extreme, antisocial behaviour. Studies have found that men with ADHD are more likely to go to prison than women with the condition. “When boys get their testosterone surge, they kick off. Women generally manage their emotions better,” explains ADHD coach SarahTempleton,authorof HowNOTToMurderYour ADHDKid(BluePoppy Publishing,£9.99).
